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Imagine having a great idea, a get-rich-quick scheme destined to
make you the next billionaire entrepreneur. Imagine an idea whose
genius lies in its sheer simplicity. Now, imagine nobody caring.

This very situation happened to one of the single most successful
entrepreneurs of all time. Massachusetts businessman Fredric
Tudor endured derision, near bankruptcy and consumer indifference
before he would become known as the “Ice King.”

On a warm summer day in 1805, Tudor and his brother hit on an idea
that is so much a part of our lives today it’s almost
impossible to imagine life without it: using ice to keep food
cold. Tudor’s business travails present a study in what
every entrepreneur needs: perseverance, vision, patience and
resilience.

Here are some lessons about navigating
change that can be drawn from the story of Tudor's
business.

“Trust yourself while all men doubt you, while still allowing
for the doubting too” -- Rudyard Kipling

People thought Tudor was crazy. Who would buy ice, after all? He
was treated an amusing eccentric by the media and had to buy his
own ship to get his cargo to the Caribbean, where he wrongly
assumed everyone would clamor to his revolutionary idea since
local ship owners and captains judged his idea to be so dubious.

Sadly, when his first shipload of ice arrived in the Caribbean,
nobody wanted to buy it. After much effort, however, Tudor’s
second shipment was a success. Tudor’s trust in his vision
carried him through until he was able to prevail.

If everyone thinks your idea is whacky, take heart: People
thought the same about Nicolaus Copernicus, Christopher
Columbus and Steve Jobs. On the other hand, don’t forget that for
every misunderstood genius there are 100 perfectly understood
dopes.

Tudor’s first partner, his brother, quickly extricated
himself from the business venture. And Tudor himself had every
reason to quit. Just as his business really started to take off,
the U.S. government imposed an embargo that prevented him from
selling to his newly acquired customers.

Too often, entrepreneurs focus so much on growth that they
overlook planning for the future. Success in business relies
heavily on an organization’s ability to sustain its advancement.
To a large extent, longevity means knowing who you are as well as
having the ability to adapt when necessary.

Experts estimate that in 1880 an American who lived in an
urban area consumed on average 1 ton of ice each year.

In 1900 more than 775 companies were making and
distributing ice. It was a good business. While it seemed
like the demand for ice would last forever, disruptive innovation
would cause the market to quickly melt away. At the turn of the
century, electric freezers began to be reliable enough to
threaten the seemingly invincible ice industry.

As Linda Rodriguez McRobbie wrote for Mental Floss in "The
Surprisingly Cool History of Ice," by 1940, "5 million units
had been sold. With freezers allowing people to make ice at home,
there was little need to ship massive quantities across the
country.”

Today only three of the members International Packaged Ice
Association were in business before 1900, Jane
McEwen, executive director of the International Packaged Ice
Association told me.

While many factors contributed to the collapse of the ice
industry, one theory holds that those that survived saw
themselves not in the business of making ice, but in the business
of keeping things cool.

Balancing growth and staying focused on the core business while
embracing market changes and creating a sustainable organization
will always be a challenge for entrepreneurs, but the alternative
is the untimely demise of the business and for many
entrepreneurs, the end to their life’s work.